Monday, 27 February 2012

Flexibility

It takes time to make a large degree of progress with stretching exercises.

Select the simple exercises to begin stretching a muscle group. The muscles must be conditioned slowly to greater degrees of stretch.

Be sure to warm-up the muscles gradually before doing any stretching exercises. Whenever possible, wear sweats to help keep the muscles warm.

One should move into the stretching position slowly, continuing until a good amount of stretch on the muscles is felt. After reaching a good stretch position, hold that position. It should be held 10-15 seconds at first and gradually, over a period of weeks, the time should be increased to 45-60 seconds.

When stretching exercise is completed, release the body slowly from the position. This is important when doing stretching exercises. Sudden releases can be uncomfortable and sometimes painful.

Daily stretching is important in achieving good gains in flexibility.

Use these stretches daily, to fine-tune your muscles. This is a general routine that emphasizes stretching the muscles that are most frequently used in normal day-to-day activities.